Fix your power leak

If you had a leaky faucet, you’d fix it, right? Of course you would. In addition to driving you insane, the dripping would raise your utility bills, and even the non-environmentalists among us don’t enjoy such a complete waste of a resource as this. (At least I hope, particularly with what’s been going on down south.) And yet many people don’t realize that the appliances and electronics around your house are in essence creating dozens of leaky outlets, slowly draining your finances and the earth’s resources for no reason at all. The power used is called “phantom drain,” and it uses a small amount of power even when things are turned off. Not everything is affected, (lights for example), but most consumer electronics, things like cell phone chargers, speakers, TVs, dvd players, etc continue to suck power out of the wall even when off. The solution is to get a power strip, and plug all nonessential items into it for easy total off/on action. You’ll want to leave your Tivo off the strip, but aside from that, almost everything can be plugged in with no problem. You should notice a difference in your bills, and you’ll be saving resources as well.